Google offers mind-enriching @Google Talks

Another great thing Google does to stir creativity is to invite all kinds of famous people onto its campus to give lectures. It calls this program @Google Talks and the guests range from celebrities, like Lady Gaga and Tina Fey to artists, authors, performers, activists and politicians.

The goal of these talks is to “keep our brains learning, growing and thinking,” the company says. It also shares the talks on YouTube.

HubSpot lets any employee sit in with another team for a while

Like Google, HubSpot is another company that is famous for a great company culture.

It also brings in speakers and teaches classes. But one unique thing it does, as part of its culture of an “uncomfortable level of transparency,” is to let employees join another team for a while to learn about that part of the business, HubSpot cofounder, CTO, Dharmesh Shah, told Business Insider.

So engineers can learn more about marketing for instance, or vice versa.

3M offers 15% Time

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3M’s “15% time” actually predates Google’s “20 percent time” by a few decades. Back in 1974, one 3M scientist, Art Fry, used his 15% time to put adhesive onto the back of a piece of paper.

That project would become the company’s most iconic product, the Post It Note.

If employees still need a boost, they can chow down on chocolate from the wall-o-gourmet chocolate stored in the office. (Or they can do a shot of Scotch from the Scotch collection kept above the chocolate.)

Yammer conducts hack days … in costume

Lots of tech companies have “hack days.” That’s where developers gather to create new products or features, often working all night writing the code to bring their ideas to life.

Yammer does it one better. The hack day lasts a full 24-hours and employees dress up in wild costumes. The whole company joins in on the fun.

GitHub crowns a monthly King or Queen of Developers

Owen Thomas, Business Insider

GitHub is a San Francisco-based company that makes a tool for hosting other people’s software projects. Each month, it crowns a King or Queen of Developers and that person runs the help desk for its customers, CEO Tom Preston-Werner told Business Insider.

Where tech support is often considered an entry-level job at other tech companies, by putting a top developer on it each month, engineers find the trouble spots and sees unexpected ways its customers are using its platform. That leads to fast fixes and all sorts of creative new features.